huà​shuō

it is said

话说 (話說) huà​shuō
it is said verb
A formulaic expression used at the start of a narrative or chapter to introduce a story.

It is said that the general trend of the world is that long periods of division must lead to unity, and long periods of unity must lead to division.

discuss noun
To talk about, recount, or speak of a particular subject.

Speaking of this matter, we have to start from the very beginning.

Frequency

Movie subtitles
6.68 per million appears in 3% of films
Written text
47.4 per million

Sources

Definitions
CC-CEDICT